The goal of the project was to come up with new techniques for earth ramming that could introduce new architectures into existing structures (in this case abandoned houses). That is: to use a secondary architectural system to support an existing shell. This tactic of preservation creates a kind of frictive doubling between structures: a way of reinvigorating without reproducing, and a means to play with disciplinary tools (solids, poches, platonic geometries) to revisit familiar typologies through a deliberately dumb/humble material.

Earth ramming is typically a “top-down” process—tamping using compaction where surface complexity is ususally introduced through the shape of the formwork. Here, a 7-axis robot assisted in precise compaction to create complex and doubly curved surfaces as means of testing the limits of the process.